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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26912524">N(o!) C(ucked?) T(onight?)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/honeyandjam/pseuds/wrenlans'>wrenlans (honeyandjam)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>NCT (Band), SuperM (Korea Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - College/University, Christian Society get together, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Inaccurate Christianity, Kim Dongyoung | Doyoung-centric, Love Triangles, M/M, Mentioned NCT Ensemble, Minor Mark Lee/Wong Yuk Hei | Lucas, One Sided Huang Ren Jun/Mark Lee, One Sided Lee Taeyong/Wong Yuk Hei | Lucas, Unrequited Crush</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 00:27:59</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,627</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26912524</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/honeyandjam/pseuds/wrenlans</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Doyoung sees something he’s not supposed to...</p><p>Ah, he’s just exaggerating. But still, it would’ve been nice if he had never had to watch 2 separate friends get totally cucked by the men of their respective dreams at a Christian society event he didn't even want to attend anyway. </p><p>The things he does for free food.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kim Dongyoung | Doyoung &amp; Lee Taeyong, Lee Taeyong/Wong Yuk Hei | Lucas, Mark Lee/Wong Yuk Hei | Lucas</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>N(o!) C(ucked?) T(onight?)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Doyoung is a slave to free food. Whether it be a store sample, someone’s leftover lunch or a coupon, Doyoung will gladly take them all. It’s truly a struggle, swinging between being smug about how much free food he’s managed to get and regretting how low he’s sunk to get it. If you want Doyoung to do anything, all you have to do is dangle a hint of free food in front of him. He honestly can't believe how easily he crumbles (like a good apple pie), but god damn, if he just doesn’t love free food. It's gotten to the point where even his (now formerly) favourite 1st year is able to use this against him. </p><p>“Please! For my sake?” Renjun begs, exaggerated sadness all over his face. </p><p>“Dude, I don’t know… I don’t really like staying around after dark.” Doyoung sighs. </p><p>“But they’ve got catering and everything! Premium stuff you know?” Renjun starts to pull on Doyoung’s sweater sleeve. "The fried chicken from A Whole Lotta Chicken! You love Lotta Chicken!” </p><p>“I know I do.” </p><p>“And it’s not like you’ll be all alone anyway! Taeyong’s going too right?” </p><p>Doyoung smiles grimly at that. “Oh yeah, he’s definitely gonna be there. Kept begging me to go with him just like you are.” </p><p>“See! Free food, and you get to spend time with friends!” </p><p>Doyoung can’t believe he’s actually coming around on the idea. The last place he wants to be on a Friday night is at his college’s fortnightly Christian society get together, but Renjun and Taeyong have been slowly ebbing away at his defences like crashing waves against a crumbling cliff. The least he can do is make Renjun squirm for it. </p><p>Doyoung plasters on his most sickeningly saccharine smile. “You know, Taeyong’s already mentioned the free food to me, so what’re you bringing to the table if I go?” </p><p>He relishes in how Renjun’s jubilant expression falls, although a good friend probably shouldn’t enjoy mentally cbt-ing their other friends. </p><p>“…Whatever you want from the food court, I’ll shout…” Renjun reluctantly says. </p><p>“It’s a deal!” Doyoung eagerly shakes Renjun’s hand to seal the transaction. Two quality free meals, all complimentary? Doyoung is so over the moon, he almost misses what Renjun’s saying. </p><p>“-sucks so much that my mom’s birthday and this get-together just had to be on the same date.” </p><p>Doyoung laughs, “God forbid your own mother’s birthday get in the way of your love life.” </p><p>“Shut up! This is like the first time Mark Lee is going to a get-together! I can’t believe I’m missing out on this golden opportunity.” Renjun huffs, swatting Doyoung’s arm. </p><p>Mark Lee this, Mark Lee that. Renjun has been obsessed with the guy ever since Taeyong had hoodwinked them into going to a Christian society volleyball game. Personally, Doyoung doesn’t really see what the big deal is, but he’s having a lot of fun watching Renjun go absolutely feral every time he so much as glances at Mark Lee.</p><p>“Besides,” Renjun continues, “I don’t even know if I’d go with Taeyong, I don’t really know him, and he’s kinda intimidating…” </p><p>“Taeyong? Intimidating?” Doyoung scoffs. </p><p>“I don’t know man, he-“ </p><p>“Yeah, you don’t know. I’m telling you man, as soon as you get to know him, he’s just a regular-ass guy.” </p><p>“Look, either way, you’re going, and you can put in a good word about me with Mark, right?” </p><p>“Yeah sure man.” Doyoung decides not to play the with poor boy’s emotions anymore and holds his tongue on how he’s not even that close with Mark. He supposes he could force Taeyong to try and help, but Mark’s been a recent and mysterious addition to the society, so he doubts Taeyong will be much use either. </p><p>Blissfully unaware of Doyoung's internal dilemma, Renjun whoops and buries him in a bear hug. “YES! Knew the D-Train would come through express!” </p><p>“Call me that one more time and I won’t-Actually, I will go, and I’ll tell Mark what a shit child you are.” </p><p>That shuts Renjun up for the rest of their break, and Doyoung happily makes a beeline for the most expensive place in the food court, smirking at Renjun's scrunched up face, who's reluctantly forking over the cash for Doyoung. </p><p>"It's just a simple wingman job, how hard could it be?" Doyoung thinks to himself, unreasonably satisfied with his latest food nabbing scheme.</p><p> </p><p>Doyoung stands in the uni gymnasium, which has been cleared of all sports equipment, and is now hosting a bunch of tables and chairs, and most importantly, people of all different walks of life with the light of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit as their common denominator. Doyoung is seriously considering if it’s too late to back out. Unfortunately, he doesn’t really have a choice as his arm is in a vice-like grip by Taeyong, his sweet, cheerful demeanour hiding the fact that he’s basically clawed his nails into Doyoung’s arm. </p><p>“I’m so glad you decided to come! It’s gonna be super fun tonight!” </p><p>“Yeah, because of the Whole Lotta Chicken right?” </p><p>Taeyong’s lips flatten into a displeased line. “It’s not all just about the food Doyoung! We’ve got introductions and readings and ice breakers to do before we eat.” </p><p>Doyoung raises a defensive hand. “Yeah I know, just joking around.” </p><p>“Taeyong! How’s it going!” A chirpy voice rings out and a few of Taeyong’s society friends shuffle over. </p><p>“Hey Chenle! Great to see you tonight! Oh, of course, my man Jisung coming along too! Awww is that Taeil? Seeing y'all here is fantastic!” Taeyong sing songs, holding his gangly arms out in front of him to gather the motley crew into a big bear hug. </p><p>Doyoung takes this opportunity to frown and rub at the claw marks Taeyong left on his bicep. He awkwardly waves to the others and exchanges his name with them all. Of course, it’s Taeyong who leads the conversations, because Doyoung literally can’t be assed to do more than half listen. Not that he doesn’t like the Christian gang, but he’s too preoccupied trying to find Mark Lee in the crowd. Why's this so hard? It’s not like it’s a particularly big crowd. He squints around at the other groups of people, trying to find the guy until he feels a particularly hard pinch on his hand. </p><p>“Ow, what the hel-heck?” He winces, turning to Taeyong. </p><p>He’s met with a disgruntled pout, “Hello? Earth to Doyoung, I’ve been trying to get your attention for the past few minutes!" Doyoung knows it was probably just seconds, but Taeyong’s body clock has always been set to 2x speed. </p><p>“Look at who that is standing near the windows.” Taeyong nudges him towards the left. </p><p>Doyoung squints through his glasses. “I literally have no idea who that is.” </p><p>“Lucas! Mr Zheng’s nephew? Our High School Chinese teacher?” </p><p>“Yeah, of course, I remember Mr Zheng, what a legend” Doyoung pauses to fist bump the air, “I’ve never seen Mr Zheng’s nephew before though.” </p><p>“Well now you have…” Taeyong trails off, eyes still on the nephew. “He’s definitely gotten hotter don’t you think.”</p><p>Doyoung turns his squint to Taeyong. “I didn’t even know he was hot to begin with.”</p><p>“Well, it’s almost time for the readings and ice breakers, so excuse me everyone-“ At this point, he turns to the rest of the group. “-I’ve got a few things to organise, and sort out and stuff.” He finishes with a smile and wave and walks off, leaving Doyoung to fumble around with the rest of Taeyong’s friends. </p><p>“So, Doyoung right?” Chenle waits for Doyoung to nod to continue. “I’m pretty sure this is the first time we’ve all met you. Are you new to the Christian society?” </p><p>“Oh ummm yeah sort of?…. I’m more Taeyong’s friend.” Doyoung slows down, mulling over what his next words should be. It’s probably too early to start cracking jokes that he’s only here for the free food. </p><p>“Ah that’s nice, how long have you guys been friends for?” Jisung pipes up. </p><p>All eyes are now on Doyoung and he tries to widen his smile in an attempt to look more warm and inviting, but his face feels like rubber and at this point, he feels like he’s just grotesquely stretching his mouth. </p><p>He coughs to clear his non-blocked throat. “Uck- Well we’ve been friends since high school and I’m pretty sure he’s always been Christian, he's always going to church with his family and volunteering there.” </p><p>“Classic Taeyong move.” Taeil nods, and everyone else seems to agree as they nod along. They’re still silent though, eyes still firmly on Doyoung with bated breath as if he’s giving a sermon about the New Revelation of Testaments or something. He doesn't know, he hasn’t touched a bible since primary school. </p><p>“Ummm… I guess I’m kinda interested in what you guys do, so I’m here tonight as a trial run.” Doyoung hopes that sounds reasonable and cordial enough that they don’t suspect his true intentions. </p><p>“Hey, that’s great! This is what tonight’s all about. We just get together and do our thing, but anyone can join.” Taeil looks approvingly at Doyoung, and Doyoung lets out an internal sigh of relief. </p><p>“This society is a great place to meet a lot of cool people.” Jisung nods along. Doyoung feels like Jisung hasn’t stopped nodding since he started talking. Doyoung wonders if he’ll ever stop nodding. </p><p>“Yep, we all love that part, especially Taeyong over there.” Chenle snickers, pointing over Doyoung’s shoulder. Doyoung notices everyone starting to crack up before he spins around. </p><p>Oh boy. </p><p>Doyoung’s first reaction is to sigh, because of course. He should have known. He watches as Taeyong giggles madly, eyes squishing shut as he stumbles around like a fawn. What’s so funny? Doyoung thinks, but he already knows. Taeyong’s eyes are zeroed on to Lucas's face and haven't moved an inch. They've probably never left his face since Taeyong first saw Lucas. It's insane, Doyoung thinks. Taeyong’s laughing like he’s just heard the funniest joke in the whole world and his smile is so wide and open that Doyoung worries that his jaw is going to unhinge and drop to the floor. </p><p>“Another classic Taeyong move.” Taeil wryly says, crossing his arms and shaking his head. </p><p>Doyoung spins back around, eyes wide in surprise. “Wait… He does this during society activities too?” </p><p>“Does he ever.” Chenle rolls his eyes in an exasperated fashion. “But, like, we fully support him. He and everyone else is totally free to love whoever they want, of course.” Chenle hurriedly adds, putting a reassuring hand on Doyoung. </p><p>Taeil vigorously nods “Yeah of course, we’re not those kinds of asshole Christians at all.” Taeil pauses to look back at Taeyong. "Just that everyone thinks Taeyong really likes to mix up our society events for speed dating ones.” </p><p>“I’m pretty sure it’s less “mixing up” and more…his whole life is just one big speed dating event.” Doyoung scoffs. </p><p>Everyone cracks up at that and Doyoung feels the pressure in between his shoulders start to loosen up. Well would you look at that! All it took to break the ice was to bond over Taeyong’s manhoe ways. He doesn’t even realise he’s smiling for real until he feels the apples of his cheeks aching. He even almost forgets that he’s here for free food and to scope out Mark Lee until a voice crackles over the speakers. It’s apparently time for speeches and everything and that brings Doyoung’s mood right back down to his scuffed converse sneakers. He shuffles with Taeil and company closer to the speaker and uses this extremely valuable time to scan the room for Mark Lee. He looks around for a tell-tale rectangular head and straight, black hair but to no avail. Ugh, what if he dyed his hair or got plastic surgery? Doyoung thinks. </p><p>While he’s looking around, he notices Taeyong is no longer with Lucas. Before he has to chance to wonder which other alleged hottie Taeyong has latched himself to, he hears Taeyong’s voice ring out through the auditorium. Doyoung looks up to watch Taeyong deliver his part of the welcome speech with a warm smile and an innocent, friendly gaze as if he wasn’t just hopelessly flirting with his high school Chinese teacher’s nephew. Doyoung continues to look around and his eye catches on the nephew in question. He supposes he can see why Taeyong was always about 5 seconds away from climbing the man. Lucas is very tall, and very handsome. Objectively speaking of course. Doyoung’s eyes start to move away until he notices the slightly shorter figure next to Lucas whisper something, and they both start grinning madly. The straight black hair… The rectangular head… Oh my Go-Goodness! It’s Mark Lee! </p><p>Doyoung sighs with fulfilment. He’s finally found the sonovabitch! Now to try and talk to him and convince him that Renjun is his perfect soulmate… Doyoung shifts a bit where he’s standing, starting to realise the impossibility of the task ahead of him. At least with Taeil and the others they had the common thread of Taeyong. But with Mark Lee? Doyoung doesn’t even know what he’s doing here. Well aside from the obvious of course. He watches intently as Mark and Lucas continue in hushed whispers. Looks like Lucas and Mark are pretty close? For once Taeyong’s incessant flirting may actually come in handy! Maybe he can use Taeyong and Lucas to bridge the gap! He mentally marks where both Lucas and Mark are in the room and half listens to the rest of the speeches, meticulously planning the hypothetical conversations that will all go perfectly to plan with absolutely no hitches or setbacks whatsoever. He only realises that he has to start moving off when Taeil nudges him and points to the growing line from the podium where they were just giving speeches. </p><p>“So, uhh, why are we all lining up there?” </p><p>Taeil herds him towards the end of the queue and Doyoung is grateful that he doesn’t get scolded for not listening. </p><p>“It’s the ice breaker activity. We all get half of a bible verse and then it’s just a matter of finding the other person.” </p><p>Doyoung purses his lips together. Shit. His cover’s gonna be blown. They’re all gonna find out what a big fat phony liar he is and immediately ban him from ever going to a Christian society event ever again, and more importantly, he’ll never get that sweet, sweet, free fried chicken. Oh and also Markren over before it even begins he guesses. He notices a pat on his back and turns around to see Taeil arranging his eyebrows around in what Doyoung can only assume is a reassuring face. </p><p>“Dude, chill, you can use your phone to look stuff up.” </p><p>“Hey, just respecting the game you know…” He replies, taking the small, rectangular piece of paper. </p><p>Taeil gives him another pat on the pat for good luck, which Doyoung knows he needs, and sets off.</p><p>Doyoung looks down, reads the half verse, and immediately types it up into Google. Not even his vaguest, fuzziest memories of singing in the school choir can save him now. Even so, he gets the bible verse no sweat, and starts asking around. Pretty soon he finds his other half, a 2nd year girl by the name of Jisoo. Doyoung, trying his best to be the upstanding college inhabitant that he should be, engages in polite, cordial small talk. Halfway through Jisoo’s rousing explanation on corporate finance and capital evaluation, Doyoung finally spots him, no, them. Wow, speak of the Devil! Or probably not, considering where he is… Either way, he finds it pretty amusing that Lucas and Mark apparently have the other half of each other’s bible verses. He watches as they talk, Mark’s neck craned up to look Lucas directly in the eyes, and Lucas’s neck waned to accommodate him. They seem to be having a pretty riveting conversation, all smiles and giggles directed only at each other. Doyoung, for some reason even he can’t fathom, continues his eagle-eyed observation on the pair. How nice, they seem to be very good friends :). He watches as the smiles and laughter tapers off. Even so, Doyoung can't shake off the feeling of something heavier, something Doyoung can't quite put his finger on. The ceiling lights in Mark’s eyes seem to get bigger and shinier and Lucas’s head is drooping down, hair falling into his eyes like a puppy’s ears. It’s not until it’s too late that it finally hits Doyoung. He's whacking himself on the head. How the hell did it take him this long to realise what the intense, heavy aura he’s been feeling between Mark and Lucas is! </p><p>Doyoung wants to look away, but it’s magnetic, the way his eyes automatically pull to the car crash happening a few feet away. He watches as Mark and Lucas’s faces inch closer and closer. Time seems to slow down as they both lean into each other, lips slowly and tortuously brushing against each other, until they finally meet in the middle, kissing like no one else exists. </p><p>Well guess what, people do exist. Like Doyoung, who is currently watching, his heart plummeting down into his stomach. He can already see Renjun’s crestfallen face swimming around in his head. What the hell is he supposed to do anyway? Run up to the two and uppercut Lucas in the jaw? Have you seen the guy’s biceps? Or his jawline? Doyoung is pretty sure his hand would get sliced open before he could even lay one on Lucas. The point being, is that a car crash is happening right in front of Doyoung, and he can’t do anything about it. </p><p>He instead opts for shifting around on his feet awkwardly, looking around the room to see if anyone’s uptight enough to stop this. One sweep around the room and it’s clear that no one really cares that Mark and Lucas are in the middle of their own romantic movie. Are we all really just content to be the NPC background cardboard cutouts here! Doyoung mentally laments, shaking his fist in the air (in his imagination of course), but what the hell does he know? He’s just the dumb idiot that wanted a whole lotta chicken. He hasn’t even noticed that Jisoo has long gone to talk to her own friends. What he does notice though, is the only other person who's just as shocked as he is. </p><p>Doyoung doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry as Taeyong’s face completely falls. </p><p>His slightly strained smile all but slides off his face, replaced by an open mouth. His normally wide eyes have narrowed dangerously, and if looks could kill, the whole room would be decimated by now. Doyoung can’t believe this. He’s really right in the middle of a two? three? way cucking right there in front of his non-existent salad. He shakes his head, still reeling at the mess he’s bearing witness to, and decides to pull himself together and go comfort Taeyong. He takes all but two steps when the loud crackling of the microphone jolts him to his core. </p><p>“Attention everyone, uhhh, thanks for participating in our introductions and little ice breakers. Hope everyone had a chance to get to know us and our society better. Anyway, time to eat! Come get your food guys!” </p><p>Doyoung spins around so fast he almost falls over. Is it finally time? Oh baby… Doyoung’s been waiting for you…. He’s been waiting for you all this time. He dashes as fast as he can to get a plate and line up around the various tables laden with delicious, delectable food. There’s everything on the table, from small side dishes to vegetarian and vegan dishes, cute sweet desserts and behemoth piles of meat. And most importantly, in its mouth watering-ly golden deliciousness, Whole lotta chicken’s fried chicken. Doyoung makes a beeline to the chicken. He grabs as much of it as he can, toeing the fine line between getting as much chicken as he wants, and trying not to look like a greedy glutton. Satisfied with his haul, he squeezes out from the jostling crowd of hungry Christians to stumble around the various tables, finally spotting Chenle and zooming straight to the table. He parks his butt in the chair, all eyes on his food and not long after, his mouth too. The first crunch of the crispy chicken skin reverberates in his skull and he leans back in his chair. All the awkwardness, fakery and side-cucking was all worth it. He finally decides to take in his surroundings as he chews, basking in the fresh familiarity of his new acquaintances. Yeah, as long as he's got his chicken, everything's gonna turn out fine. He turns to face the front and God forbids, almost does a spit take. </p><p>What the hell did he ever do to deserve this. </p><p>None other than Mark and Lucas are sitting just a few feet away at their own, oh so conveniently two-person only table. They’re acting like they’re in their own cute little romantic comedy again. If the moment before was the meet-cute, then this is the legit romantic date, where they’re probably swapping witty banter and dopey eyes at each other while sappy pop soundtracks the couple. Renjun’s dismayed face flits across his thoughts yet again and this time, Doyoung truly doesn’t know what to do. His frenzied chewing chugs to a slow munch and he stares. Yes, if he was any more aware of what exactly he was doing right at that moment he would realise what a creep he looked like and stop, but he stares. He watches as Mark and Lucas inch closer and closer to each other yet again, and Doyoung grits his teeth, unaware that there’s no longer any chicken in his mouth. His brain races across a thousand different scenarios, each trying to go through exactly how Renjun is going to find out about this. Should he tell him? And risk a crestfallen Renjun on his hands. Yikes, Doyoung's always been a pretty stiff shoulder to cry on. Not tell him and let Renjun figure it out for himself? Doyoung can’t lie, he’s pretty scared Renjun is going to come after him for not doing his wingman job (Doyoung should know Renjun would never blame him for something like this but he’s panic thinking ok?). Doyoung keeps staring straight ahead and only registers now that Mark and Lucas are yet again slow kissing. Doyoung gulps, but still doesn’t take his eyes off them for reasons even he can’t fathom. He’s just too busy getting worked up about this on Renjun’s behalf. Doyoung doesn’t know how long it’s been when Mark and Lucas break the kiss, feeling like both a millisecond and infinity has passed. </p><p>Doyoung suddenly realises that Mark is staring straight back at him. </p><p>Holy Shit. </p><p>Doyoung whips his neck at the speed of light, eyes blown out in panic. He doesn’t even realise he’s dropped his dinky plastic fork until he squeezes his hand and can only feel his short nails digging into his skin. He quickly picks it up and acts like his food is the most interesting thing he’s ever seen in the world, which normally it would be. Boy, it’s a cold autumn night, but he can practically feel his ears blazing red. He attempts to talk to whoever's closest to him so it looks like he’s not a crazy stalker. He takes a deep breath and the air he breathes in is so, so dry and cold, tongue lying in his mouth like a useless lump of flesh. He forces himself to swallow a drop of saliva down and register who exactly he’s facing. </p><p>“T-Taeyong.” Huh, didn’t think his voice could go that high. </p><p>All Doyoung gets in reply is a tiny, warbled “what” and this takes Doyoung out of his own distress and straight into someone else's. </p><p>Taeyong is pointedly staring down at his plate, fork pushing around little bits and pieces on his plate. His eyes are glassy and rounder than usual, and Doyoung realises that he’s not the only one that’s been panicking for the last few minutes. </p><p>“Hey guys, how’re yall going?” A loud, cheery voice interrupts Doyoung's mile-a-minute thought train.</p><p>There’s never any rest for the wicked, Doyoung tiredly thinks, looking up to see Lucas beaming around the table, arm wrapped around Mark.</p><p>The table greets him in a chorus of hellos, with Taeyong staying pointedly silent. </p><p>Lucas makes small talk with the table, and Mark occasionally chimes in. They're both pretty nice, chill guys. It’s all going fairly well, aside from the whole, Taeyong and Renjun getting cucked thing. </p><p>“So, probably really out of the blue and stuff, but guess what guys?” Lucas asks, throwing up jazz hands. “Markie here and I are like dating now!” He ends with a sheepish grin and throws his jacked arm around Mark’s shoulders and gives him an affectionate squeeze. </p><p>Doyoung gnaws at his lip. He smiles awkwardly, congratulating the new couple along with everyone else. </p><p>Out of literally nowhere, Chenle throws a wrench into the entire interaction. </p><p>“Woah, that’s crazy! I remember seeing you and Taeyong getting along really well like, a few hours ago!” </p><p>Doyoung’s jaw immediately clenches as he discretely turns to Taeyong. Taeyong is staring straight ahead into absolutely nothing and Doyoung’s worried that Taeyong.exe has completely shut down. The first thing Taeyong does is laugh. It’s a hollow robot laugh though, like he just pulled up a shitty voice to text programme and played a generic laugh track while opening and closing his mouth. It was terrible. And somehow only Doyoung notices. </p><p>“Nooooooo, that was all just friendly banter, Lucas and I?” That’s where Taeyong’s voice pitches up a few octaves. “Like we’re just good friends now and that’s it!” Taeyong giggles, brittle and saccharine. </p><p>By now, if it was anyone else, Doyoung would’ve just politely nodded and giggled along. But this is Taeyong. They, unfortunately, have a long, long history of verbally slam-dunking each other. Doyoung knows that is completely inappropriate. He knows that now is definitely not the time. But he really can’t help it. It’s basically become a reflex at this point. Which is why Doyoung immediately regrets, but doesn’t stop what comes out of his mouth. </p><p>“Good friends? C’mon man, you’re so slow! Mark and Lucas are already making out and you’re just exchanging friendly banter!” </p><p>At that the whole table erupts into laughter and Doyoung would almost be proud of the reception his diss is getting if Taeyong hadn’t straight up just fallen silent, dead fish eyes staring straight into the abyss of his paper plate. Ah shit, Doyoung has just manifested vacant store mannequin Taeyong. The most cursed version of Taeyong, and it's all his fault. He’s basically just dunked on his best friend in front of his crush-that-has-a-boyfriend, and his loyal hoard of society friends. Doyoung can't bear to look at Taeyong anymore and instead accidentally catches Mark’s eye, and uh oh, he isn’t laughing either. His face is scrunched in an unreadable expression, but he’s obviously not laughing. If Doyoung had a nickel for every time he’s made eye contact with Mark Lee in a really shitty situation tonight… He’d only have two, but it’s still pretty weird that it’s happened twice already right? </p><p>Doyoung, utterly defeated, leans back into his chair and unceremoniously scoops up the fried chicken on his plate, shoving it into his mouth, pointedly trying to ignore the burning mess of this entire social interaction. He grimly smiles at no one in particular, chewing pointedly.</p><p> The things he does for free food.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>based on a dream i had....<br/><a href="https://twitter.com/wrenlans">twt</a></p></blockquote></div></div>
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